New Bible Links Black History With Scriptures

The African American Jubilee Edition Of The Bible Includes 300 Pages Of Scholars' Articles.

December 12, 1999|By Detroit Free Press

Five years ago, a group of African-American religious leaders and scholars launched an ambitious project with the lofty goal of safeguarding their spiritual heritage and helping future generations - by publishing a book.

This group feared that younger generations of black men and women were casually abandoning a powerful tool that had helped their ancestors survive slavery, segregation and racism.

That tool was the Bible, the group believed. Before the Civil War, the Bible had been used by slaves secretly to teach their children how to read, even when that was a serious crime. And the Bible's ancient stories of liberation had served as a symbol of hope to many generations.

But on the eve of 2000, many younger black Americans - like all younger Americans, according to nationwide polls - are finding less time to read and are learning less about the Bible than their parents and grandparents.

Thus began the five-year project, led by black scholars, to carve out a new kind of Bible that would link black history and aspirations directly to the Scriptures.

The result is the 1,918-page African American Jubilee Edition of the Bible. In addition to the traditional text, this new Bible includes 300 pages of articles by a broad range of black scholars about African-Americans' history and their Christian heritage.

Later this month, promotion of the Bible will be launched in a series of city-by-city celebrations that will start in Atlanta and continue through next year.

The American Bible Society in New York is the sponsor of what is shaping up as a milestone in the black Christian community.

The Rev. Kevin Turman, pastor of historic Second Baptist Church in Detroit, was given one of the first copies a week ago.

``This is very exciting. It provides us with a common touchstone,'' Turman said. ``We need to reconnect with younger people. They're not only disconnected from the experiences of slavery and emancipation and segregation. I'm disturbed because, when I talk with younger people, I find that they're disconnected from people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. They're cut off from the strength that has brought us this far.''

While many African-Americans have prospered, others still are facing a bleak future in impoverished city neighborhoods, said the Rev. Diane Ritzie, a biblical scholar, prison chaplain and Baptist pastor from New York who managed the Bible project.

``I live in the south Bronx, and I can tell you there are some communities where the poverty is just overwhelming,'' Ritzie said. ``We want to offer hope by reminding our people about our heritage.''

That includes encouraging black women to become church leaders, Ritzie said. Although most mainline Protestant denominations ordain women, their progress has been slow in traditionally black denominations.

So Ritzie pushed to include a chapter about pioneering women preachers. One example: As early as the Civil War era, the book points out, Amanda Berry Smith was crisscrossing the United States, preaching sermons so powerful that she became known in her day as ``God's image carved in ebony.''

Fred Allen, a spokesman for the American Bible Society, said, ``We want young people to identify with the great characters in the Bible who challenged the power structures of their day for freedom, liberation and justice. People like Moses, Isaiah, David, Jeremiah, Amos and, of course, at the core of the Bible for us as Christians: Jesus.''

The society expects to sell at least 200,000 copies during the next year and 1 million during the next five years, Allen said. The current edition contains only the books of the Protestant Bible. But within the next few years, the society would like to release a Catholic version including the Apocrypha, the 15 extra books that are part of Catholic Bibles, Allen said.